The 19th annual San Francisco Electronic Music Festival concluded yesterday, and we at CatSynth were on hand for the final concert. There were three sets, each showcasing different currents within electronic music, but they all shared a minimalist approach to their musical expression and presentation.

The evening opened with a set by Andy Puls, a composer, performer and designer of audio/visual instruments based out of Richmond, California. We had seen one of his latest inventions, the Melody Oracle, at Outsound’s Touch the Gear (you can see him demonstrating the instrument in our video from the event). For this concert, he brought the Melody Oracle into full force with additional sound and visuals that filled the stage with every changing light and sound.

The performance started off very sparse and minimal, with simple tones corresponding to lights. Combining tones resulted in combining lights and the creation of colors from the original RGB sources. As the music grew increasingly complex, the light alternated between the solid colors and moving patterns.

I liked the sound and light truly seemed to go together, separate lines in a single musical phrase, and a glimpse of what music would be if it was done with light rather than sound.

OMMO, the duo of Julie Moon and Adria Otte brought an entirely different sound and presence to the stage.

The performance explored the “complexities and histories of the Korean diaspora and their places within it.” And indeed, words and music moved freely back and forth between traditional and abstract sounds and Korean and English words. Moon’s voice was powerful and evocative, and quite versatile in range and she moved through these different ideas. The processing on her voice, including delays and more complex effects, was crisp and sounded like an extension of her presence. Otte performed on laptop and analog electronics, delivering a solid foundation and complex interplay. A truly dynamic and captivating performance.

The final set featured a solo performance Paris-based Kassel Jaeger, who recently became director of the prestigious Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM). Sitting behind a table on a darkened stage, with a laptop, guitar and additional electronics, he brought forth an eerie soundscape.

The music featured drone sounds, with bits of recognizable recorded material, as well as chords and sharp accents. The musique concrète influence was abundant but also subtle at times as any source material was often submerged in complex pads and clouds over which Jaeger performed improvisations.

It is sometimes difficult to describe these performances in words, though we at CatSynth try our best to do so. Fortunately, our friends at SFEMF shared some clips of each set in this Instagram post.

“It is a video that plays the mouth and plays the cat in the voice of meow. In addition, authentic school which can set various tone colors such as violin sound, organ sound, frog voice, etc. The difference from keromin line is that the pronunciation when turning on the power is meow. Others, Sora Momo mode, drum mode, various types of setting are the same as Cokeromin · Lime. Reservation reception starts on 20th year new release, February 22nd (= Nyan pussy cat’s day)! It will arrive in about 22 days from reservation. www.keromin.com”

Cat mug with a TTSH, a clone of the Arp 2600 synthesizer. By Alexander Henriksson‎ on Facebook.

And another cat has found its 🏠

The TTSH is an Arp 2600 clone that can be built as a DIY project, as described by The Human Comparator. San Pedro Labs builds full versions, including wood casings. (They used to be here in San Francisco, but have recently relocated to New Mexico.)

Charlotte the cat contemplates the horror that is a circuit-bent Big Mouth Billy Bass. From Ok Housecat on YouTube.

I was often sardonically amused by this fishy contraption since the commercials in the 1990s. But now I am genuinely intrigued by its circuit-bending possibilities. At the very least, it could make for a fun CatSynth TV episode. I found at least one set of instructions here, but it might be even more fun to just take it aport and just explore with alligator cables.

The Horror…The Horror…

From Ok Housecat. Visit their website okhousecat.com, where you can see an amazing array of circuit-bent and other custom electronic instruments. We at CatSynth are going to spend some more time exploring the video demos 😻